Politics

OAKLAND (BCN) ― Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums set a goal in his state of the city address Monday night of reducing the city's crime rate by at least 10 percent this year.

In a 55-minute speech to a packed audience of several hundred people at the City Council's chambers, Dellums said, "We must stop the killing and the dying in the community."

Dellums said, "We have begun to bring down the crime rate" because the city's Police Department now has 836 officers and is at full strength for the first time in many years.

Dellums, who is beginning his third year as mayor, said that Oakland's murder rate is down 20 percent, although the city still had more than 100 homicides last year, a number he said is too high.

The mayor was interrupted twice by hecklers who said they are upset that Oscar Grant III, an unarmed Hayward man, was shot and killed by Bay Area Rapid Transit officer Johannes Mehserle at the Fruitvale station in Oakland early on New Year's Day.

Bakari Olatunji, an organizer for the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement in Oakland, alleged that half of the city's budget goes to what he described as "the corrupt police department" and told Dellums "that's a war budget."

After police escorted Olatunji out of the council's chambers, Dellums said, "We live in an open and free society. I'm not intimidated by that. I'm strengthened by that."

A short while later, Oakland resident Mandingo Afroconus, also known as Mandingo Hayes, told Dellums that the black community in Oakland "is hurting right now" and said police officers "killed seven unarmed citizens last year."

Dellums told Hayes, who was allowed to remain in his seat, "I feel your pain and I hear your rage" and said a commission should be formed to review reforms that were mandated in the settlement of a police abuse lawsuit six years ago.

The mayor said, "We need to bring the community and police together" and the Police Department, which is being investigated by the FBI, needs to be more accountable.

Police Chief Wayne Tucker listened to Dellums' speech impassively from a seat in the balcony and hurried away from reporters who pursued him afterward.

City Council President Jane Brunner, who was knocked to the ground by a television cameraman who was chasing Tucker, said there was "a very significant rumor" that Tucker will resign but she said she's been assured by city officials that Tucker hasn't offered to resign and Dellums hasn't asked him to resign.

"If I could read the tea leaves, he (Tucker) won't resign," Brunner said.

However, she said she and fellow City Council members Larry Reid, Desley Brooks and Pat Kernighan will hold a news conference at City Hall on Tuesday to talk about their concerns about Tucker and the Police Department.

In his address, Dellums said, "I will announce the name of a wonderful woman who will be our next public safety coordinator" and over see the police and fire departments.

Brunner said afterward that the council hasn't been told whom Dellums will name.

Dellums didn't say anything about appointing a new city administrator to replace Deborah Edgerly, whom he fired last July 1 amidst allegations that she interfered in a police investigation into the city's worst drug gang.

Dan Lindheim has been acting city administrator since then.

Many observers thought that former City Manager Robert Bobb, who recently completed a report on how to make Oakland's government more efficient, was the leading candidate to become city administrator, but Bobb Monday accepted a one-year appointment to serve as emergency financial manager for the Detroit school system.

Aside from public safety issues, Dellums devoted much of his address to financial problems that are plaguing both Oakland and the nation at large.
He said Oakland is facing a deficit of at least $50 million this year and could face another $57 million next year.

However, Dellums said he's hopeful of getting a large infusion of federal funds from the new administration of President Barack Obama, whom he said will be friendlier to cities than was former President George Bush.

Dellums said he wants the city's managers and department heads "not to come to work every day to make the trains run on time" but instead to "think creatively and make a difference."

Brunner said she disagrees with those sentiments, saying, "It's critical that government works" and city officials should focus on basics such as fixing potholes.

But she said that she's hopeful that Dellums will be able to follow through on his commitment to get more federal funds thanks to his many years in Washington, D.C., as a congressman representing Oakland and other nearby communities.

"It's all about relationships and he has the best relationships of any mayor in the country," Brunner said.

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